Given Ducks Unlimited's phenomenal growth during the 1970s and 1980s, it was almost inevitable that its mission would also expand in scope, and DU had the financial wherewithal to do it. There was a growing movement in the United States for an increase in habitat work to benefit ducks locally, especially in those states that contributed significant numbers of ducks to the continental population, such as Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, and the Dakotas. DU had already launched Ducks Unlimited de Mexico in 1970 to conserve important waterfowl wintering habitat south of the border. In 1984 DU launched its U.S. habitat program, which was a logical extension of DU's longstanding efforts to conserve and enhance the most important wetlands to waterfowl in Canada and Mexico.